Courts and Crime

The Bedford County Sheriff’s Office and the Virginia State Police are assisting the Montgomery County (MD) Police Department with a homicide investigation, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.
Last week investigators from the Montgomery County Police Department, Cold Case Squad, traveled to Bedford County and met with investigators from the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office and Virginia State Police.

A Forest man has been arrested for attempting to abduct a 13-year-old boy Monday at a bus stop, as well as attacking several other residents.

At 8:22 a.m. Monday, September 8, Bedford County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to Jane Randolph Street in Forest after receiving a call from a mother who reported that her 13 year old son had returned home from his bus stop.

Josey Ray Edwards, 25, and Angelina Delores Brooks, 31, both from Amherst, were found guilty in Bedford County Circuit Court of grand larceny on Tuesday.
Brooks pleaded guilty to the charge while Edwards entered a no contest plea. A no contest plea means that the defendant does not admit guilt, but agrees that there is enough evidence to convict him.

Harry Claiborne Dillard, 61, a former physical education teacher with Bedford County Public Schools, will face all three aggravated sexual battery charges against him in one trial.
Dillard was in Bedford County Circuit Court, Tuesday morning, to determine if the charges would be tried at one time, or in separate trials.

The Bedford County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a forgery and uttering that recently occurred.
During the course of the investigation it was discovered that the same female suspect is allegedly responsible for similar crimes in Waynesboro, Chesterfield and the town of Bedford. These crimes with this suspect have been occurring since June 2014.

A Bedford man is facing three charges of aggravated sexual battery for incidents that allegedly occurred between 2004-2006.
Mario Rivero, 43, is set for a jury trial on the charges on Sept. 30. The charges allege he inappropriately touched a girl under the age of 13 years old. He was arrested last August and indicted in December of last year.
He has been out on bond.

The Roanoke man charged with allegedly trying to hire a hit man to murder his estranged wife will be evaluated to see what his competency was at the time the allegation took place.
Kevin Colgan remains in jail where he has been since he was arrested on June 19 after allegedly trying to hire the hit man who was actually an undercover officer with the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office.

A former physical education teacher with Bedford County Public Schools has been charged with three counts of aggravated sexual battery of students while he was working at Montvale Elementary School.
The incidents allegedly occurred in 2011 and 2012 during gym classes at the school.

A 22-year-old Goodview man pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to involuntary manslaughter, in connection with a single-vehicle accident last year that killed a Bedford man.
Durham Westley Falabella, who is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 21, could face from one to 10 years in prison on the involuntary manslaughter conviction and 12 months in jail on a misdemeanor driving under the influence conviction.
Falabella entered the pleas in Bedford County Circuit Court; he was indicted on the charges in April.

The investigation remains ongoing into the officer-involved shooting in Bedford County July 30; the man who was killed has been identified.
At the request of the Bedford County Sheriff, the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s “Police Shooting Investigative Team” out of the Salem Field Office is investigating the fatal shooting of the man by a Bedford County deputy sheriff.